Gravetye Manor Hotel and Restaurant

We enjoyed a relaxing and peaceful night away at this beautiful hotel. The gardens, which are worth a trip, still have masses of autumn colour and interest. Plenty of sofas on which to sit and read next to an open fire with a glass of sherry. Lots of pretty flowers, presumably from the garden, are placed everywhere and give a charming vibe. Restaurant, which is sort of magically embedded in the garden, is first class - the three course meal also includes a number of additional smaller courses or palette cleansers. The staff were uniformly friendly and professional. Couldn't fault the hotel. (The package which includes dinner and B and B is good value - breakfast was excellent.)

Just stayed for the fourth time. Why so often?: All Staff were very welcoming, professional and friendly. . My room (on this occasion Mulberry) was beautifully furnished and spotlessly clean. At breakfast I sat in the Restaurant overlooking the wonderful flower garden. Later I walked down to the lake, back through the meadow and up to the walled kitchen garden. There were fresh flowers from the garden throughout and on a dull autumnal morning the log fire was burning in the front hall. It all added up to a very enjoyable and relaxing stay.

We returned to Gravetye (after a gap of many years) and it was as we remembered and in many ways even better. Where to start? The gardens are exceptional and we had several wonderful walks amongst the well kept spaces. The accommodations are modern in the ways they need to be--technology, TV's and so forth, but they are other wise beautifully traditional. And spotless. The public spaces, the several spots to enjoy a drink and a fire are so comfortable. And the dining room, glass enclosed in the garden, is so beautiful only out done by the sevrice and the cuisine. Our only regret: we don't live closer so we could visit more often.

Gravetye Manor is the ‘go-to’ restaurant of my husband and I for special occasions. It has one of the most stunning settings imaginable, and the ambience, cuisine and service in the restaurant are superb. We also had the pleasure of staying in the hotel for a couple of nights back in December and this gave us the opportunity to experience the a la carte breakfast, lounge and resident’s dinner menu, all of which were excellent. While our traditional Classic room was lovely, the bathroom, particularly the shower, felt tired and overdue an upgrade. This is a minor niggle in the whole scheme of things and we would most definitely recommend dining and staying at this fabulous and historic hotel.

If you appreciate beautifully tended herbaceous borders and native wildflower meadows linked by pathways of more naturalistic planting, or if you are passionate about good food with innovative ingredient combinations mostly harvested from a stunning walled kitchen garden, then a visit to Gravetye Manor is a must.